The Ministry and EDSA are spending huge sums of money in purchasing power from the Electricity Generation & Transmission Company (EGTC) to meet the growing demand of electricity in Freetown and surrounding communities and this desire to increase the cost of electricity, residents believe, will cause further hardship on consumers as they contend with managing other expenses such as financing their children’s education, paying rent among others.

They added that the increase on electricity tariff planned by EDSA is unfortunate as consumers complain daily that they are not getting value for money because of regular outages, hastily adding that the government should intervene in order to defer any increment.

“It will not come out well with us and we are not going to be pleased,” some consumers lamented to AYV, adding that they are not expecting such development at such a crucial time when the economy is biting.

According to a local report, the Finance Department at EDSA asserted that the planned increase electricity tariff they are planning is as a result of losses the authority is suffering, stating that they are buying electricity at Le1,575 Kwh and selling at Le 1,355 Kwh.

The citizens went on to say they believe that EDSA meter is not helping the situation as according to them, the meters consume a lot of current despite they are not using heavy electrical appliances. “If we buy Le50,000 EDSA credit it last between  three to five days.

They urged the government to reach an agreement with EDSA with regards to proposed plans to increase electricity tariff.

Electricity transmission and distribution have been a cause for concern across the country because of the old system which needs urgent improvement in order for citizens to benefit from electricity.